Humpback Whale by the Pacifica Pier 6/13/26

I was out taking video of the work the city is doing by the pier, moving boulders on the beach.  I was getting tired so I went inside and started downloading my footage.  Not long after I started downloading, my wife said “Dave!  Whale by the pier!”.  I grabbed my camera and dashed outside.  Indeed, there was a whale throwing his fluke about and then breaching.  He came really close to giving me the right angle to get the pier and the whale in one shot, but not quite.  That would’ve been extra special given everything going on.  

This is a preliminary edit.  There’s no noise reduction, nothing that requires any real processing, just a quick slice-and-dice with a color grade.   I just wanted to get something out there quickly since it’s been a while for the Humpbacks here, and with the pier situation, something happy seemed nice.  I may have a better edit later.  I still need to figure out what I want to do about the audio (largely because of the construction vehicles right in front of me) as well as the sections where you get temporary heat distortion from the bulldozer exhaust each time it passed in front of me.  But for now, here you go - a very active whale doing a bunch of tail work, including while inverted, multiple breaches and a chin slap.